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Need-Finding and Empathy

The document discusses the importance of understanding user needs through empathy and discovery. It provides guidance on empathizing through immersing yourself in a user's experiences and situation, observing without judgment to understand what they are doing and why, and engaging with users to understand their perspectives.

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ngan.le220165
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32 views

Need-Finding and Empathy

The document discusses the importance of understanding user needs through empathy and discovery. It provides guidance on empathizing through immersing yourself in a user's experiences and situation, observing without judgment to understand what they are doing and why, and engaging with users to understand their perspectives.

Uploaded by

ngan.le220165
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A good challenge

Questions to ask
• Will this solution fill a need?
Desirability • Will it fit into people’s lives?
(human) • Will it appeal to people?
• Will people actually want the product / service?

• Where, when, how, and why might the customer experience your
product / service?
Feasibility • What channels could be used to reach the customer?
(technical) • What human, manufacturing, financial, and technological
capabilities are required for creating and delivering the solution?

• Will the design actually make money? How?


• What will the return on investment be, and in how much
Viability
time?
(business) • What is the revenue model? Is it sustainable?
• How much do customers pay and how?
Frame your challenge
It’s too noisy in the office, I have trouble
concentrating.

– too similar: How might we reduce noise so we don’t have


trouble concentrating?
– too narrow: How might we create more private offices
so employees can concentrate better?
– too broad: How might we help people focus?
– just right: How might we design the space to
accommodate a range of working styles?
Design Process: Discovery
• characteristics
Discovery of customers &
tasks
Design (AKA
Exploration Needfinding)
• understand client’s
Design expectations
Refinement
• determine scope
of project
Production • evaluate existing
practices &
products

Design Thinking for User Experience


Winter 2021 6
Design, Prototyping & Evaluation
Needfinding … what is it?

A process for discovering people’s explicit


and implicit needs …
So that we can (eventually) create
appropriate solutions

Needs and solutions are different things

An understanding of people’s needs can be


leveraged across an entire business activity
beyond the development of a single activity
What is needed to reach the shelf?

• Design a way
to reach
something on a
high shelf

• Make as many
as you can.
What is needed to reach the shelf?
• The need is not a
ladder … that’s
just one possible
solution
• Focusing on
needs vs.
solutions =
More solutions!
Looking for needs (NOT solutions)
• Rather than specific solutions, a needs
focus keeps all possible solutions open
for consideration and avoids prematurely
limiting possibilities

• How to do this?
– State needs independently of ways those needs might be
served
What is needed to reach the shelf?

• Ladder
• Needs access to items on the top
shelf?
• Needs a way to entertain children at
stores?
• Needs parenting classes?
• Access to party materials?

• Solutions could be varied:


– Forklifts? Ladder? More engaged
workforce to help? Day care at store?
New section for parties? Rearranging
of shelves? Other thoughts?
“ You Are Not the Customer”

• Seems obvious, but…


– different experiences
– different terminology
– different ways of looking at the world

• Easy to think of self as typical customer


Design Thinking for User Experience
Winter 2021 12
Design, Prototyping & Evaluation
Needfinding
• What is the needfinding process?
– Frame and prepare
• Frame the research questions
• Define the needer group
• Study established data for grounding in the
subject
– Watch and record
• Immerse oneself in the needer group
• Avoid intrusions to keep the behavior natural
• Use appropriate recording media
• Interview in the customer’s environment
• Record information in the customer’s terms
– Interpret and reframe
• Create need statements
• Classify and prioritize the needs
• Reframe the research
empathize: what?
When you feel what the other person is feeling.

When you can mirror their expression, their opinions,


and their hopes.
empathize: what?
When you feel what the other person is feeling.

When you can mirror their expression, their opinions,


and their hopes.

Talk Story
empathize: why?

to discover people’s expressed and latent needs so that you


can meet them through your design solutions.
Look for needs that are meaningful to THEM, not to you
empathize: how?
empathize: how?

without judgment
with a beginner’s eyes
with curiosity
optimistically
respectfully
Doug Dietz and the MRI
Empathy: Feel what they feel
Principles

1) Immerse

1) Observe

1) Engage

29
empathize: how?

immerse

observe

engage
immerse yourself in the situations and
experiences your user has
Bronislaw Malinowski Learning From
Trobriand Islanders (1914)

Image Courtesy Wikipedia:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Wmalinowski_trobriand_isles_1918.jpg
empathize: how?

immerse

observe

engage

“You Can Observe a Lot Just by Watching”


–Yogi Berra
Technique: Active Observation

Assumptions Observe & interview


without knowing what
you are looking for
Inference
s

discover what is
Facts interesting!

34
observe what your user is doing,
how s/he is doing it,
and what prompted the behavior

35
what :: how :: why

what is this person (or persons) doing?


Notice what is happening both with the person and the
context he/she is functioning within.

how are they doing it?


pretend you are describing the picture to someone not
looking at it.

why are they doing it this way?


take a guess. start to form a story. then ask.
38
Pay attention to all the artifacts

Look for workarounds & hacks

“Errors” are a goldmine


empathize: how?

immerse

observe

engage

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